USB Printers on Windows
To use a USB receipt printer with the desktop app on Windows, install it in Windows first: the app finds a USB printer only once Windows has it. Then add it in the POS:
This page is also for you if, in the desktop app on Windows:
- Add printer says No printer found, with the printer plugged in and switched on. See No printer found.
- A printer you added in an earlier version says On Windows, add this printer as an installed printer instead. See A printer from an earlier version.
- The test page is stray letters and symbols, or nothing came out.
Install the printer in Windows
First, check whether Windows already has it:
- Plug the printer in and switch it on. If the maker supplies a Windows driver or installer, run it now.
- In Windows, open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners.
- If your printer is in the list, go on to Add it in the POS. If not, next to Add a printer or scanner, choose Add device. If Windows finds the printer and adds it, go on to Add it in the POS too.
If Windows still doesn't list it, add it by hand with Generic / Text Only, the plain driver that comes with Windows.
Add the printer by hand
- Choose Add manually, then Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings.
- Under Use an existing port, pick the printer's USB port: its name starts with USB, such as USB001.
- For the driver, choose the manufacturer Generic and the printer Generic / Text Only.
- Give it a name you'll recognise at the till, such as Receipt printer, and finish.
On Windows 10
Start from Settings → Devices → Printers & scanners and choose Add a printer or scanner. Where Windows 11 says Add manually, Windows 10 says The printer that I want isn't listed.
Add it in the POS
- In the desktop app, go to Settings → Printing and press Add printer. The search starts by itself and looks for USB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi printers.
- Pick the card with the name you gave the printer in Windows. It carries the badge Installed printer. With several printers, the panel asks Which printer is yours? and picks none for you.
- Press Print a test page. The panel asks Did the test page print?
- If the page looks right, answer Yes, and it looks right. The printer is saved: the panel says name is set up. Press Done, and the printer has its own row in Settings → Printing.
If the page came out wrong or not at all, see If something goes wrong. The other answers are on Print a test page.
If something goes wrong
No printer found
First check Printers & scanners in Windows. If your printer isn't listed, install it in Windows, then press Scan again. If it is listed and the app still finds nothing, see Still stuck?.
The other buttons on the No printer found panel
- Scan again — looks again. Press it after you install the printer in Windows.
- Find a Bluetooth printer — for a Bluetooth printer that needs no pairing.
- Enter an IP address — for a network printer the search missed.
- More options — name, paper width and drawer, before the test page. See More options.
- Open the printer guide — the printer guide.
A printer from an earlier version
Printing to the printer says On Windows, add this printer as an installed printer instead. An earlier version saved it as a direct USB printer, and on Windows the app now reaches a USB printer only through its entry in Windows. In Settings → Printing, open the printer's More actions menu, choose Delete, then add it again with Add printer and pick its Installed printer card.
Stray letters and symbols
While adding a printer
- Answer Nothing came out, even though paper printed. The panel has no answer for symbols, and this one opens Start over and Save without testing.
- Check the name on the card you picked:
- Another printer, such as an office printer? It can't read receipt commands. Press Start over and pick your receipt printer's entry.
- Your receipt printer? Press Save without testing, then fix its language.
A printer already saved
- Check the name on its row in Settings → Printing. If it's another printer, press Add printer and pick your receipt printer's entry.
- If it is your receipt printer, its Printer Language setting may not match the printer. Press Edit on its row.
- Set Printer Language to the one your printer's manual names. Star printers use StarPRNT or Star Line Mode; Epson printers use ESC/POS, as do most other makes.
- Press Test Print on the row. If a Star printer still prints symbols, set the other Star language and test again.
- Symbols with every language? Check your model on Supported receipt printers, then see Still stuck?.
Nothing came out
While adding a printer
- Answer Nothing came out.
- Check the name on the card you picked. If it's another printer, press Start over and pick your receipt printer's entry.
- If it is yours, the panel says Check the cable and that the printer is switched on, then try again. Do that, then press Try again.
A printer already saved
- Check the name on its row in Settings → Printing. If it's another printer, press Add printer and pick your receipt printer's entry.
- If it is yours, check the cable and that the printer is switched on, then press Test Print on its row.
Still nothing
Print a test page from Windows itself, from your printer's entry in Printers & scanners. If Windows can't print to it either, the fault is between Windows and the printer: the cable, the port or the driver. If Windows prints it and the POS still doesn't, see Still stuck?.
Find a USB printer fails in the web app
In the web app, Find a USB printer often can't open a USB printer on Windows. Use the desktop app instead: install the printer in Windows, then add it in the POS.
How the app prints on Windows
The desktop app prints to the printer you installed in Windows, so pick that one. Whether your model reads receipt commands is on Supported receipt printers.
Why the printer has to be installed in Windows
Windows puts its own driver, or the maker's, on a USB printer, and the desktop app prints through the printer's entry in Windows rather than to the cable. It sends each receipt as printer commands, and Windows passes them to the printer unchanged, so the driver doesn't reshape the receipt.
Which Windows printers the search lists
Every printer installed in Windows, except Windows' own entries such as Microsoft Print to PDF and Fax. An office printer installed in Windows is listed too, and looks like any other, so pick by name. A Bluetooth printer paired in Windows shows up the same way, as an installed printer.
Still stuck?
Press Copy setup report on the Nothing printed panel, or in the printer's More actions menu in Settings → Printing. Paste it into your message: it names the Windows entry the app printed to.